The Most Ambitious Story Arc

Today is the 21st anniversary of the most ambitious story arc to ever hit the comics page in newspapers.

You see, generally, a story arc is never longer than six days, and will run Monday through Saturday. Sunday strips are almost always self-contained things, because there are people who only get the Sunday paper, so that’s the only day they read the comics. Comic authors don’t want those readers to be left wondering what’s going on, because they didn’t read the previous six strips.

Of course, in this day and age, (almost) everything is available online, so it’s a little easier for people to see what they missed. Still, story arcs running into a Sunday are still rare.

Once in a blue moon, a comic strip author will run an arc that includes a Sunday strip. Those are more challenging, because not only do they have to tie it into the arc, but they also have make sure it works as stand alone strip. I’m sure there were even comics that had a story arc run through two Sundays, but I don’t recall ever having read any.

But back in 1997, FoxTrot comic strip author Bill Amend took a huge risk. He started a story arc that not only ran through Sundays, but ran for a whopping 61 days!

This story arc chronicled the adventures of Jason, Marcus, Elieen, Phoebe, and Eugene at a summer science camp. It also provided the title for the sixth FoxTrot treasury: Camp FoxTrot.

If you’re interested in reading it, GoGomics has it archived. Here’s the strip that started it all.

Happy anniversary, Camp FoxTrot!